It is kind of foolish, but I get serious "naches" from hearing about converts to Judaism who do great things. This man made Aliyah and seems to be a completely self-taught kosher gourmet cook. It is amusing that he is evidently a stereotypically precise German, but also creative, and it sounds like that combination produces amazing results in the kitchen.

Quote :

For Franz, tonight’s a chance to prove more than his knife skills – it’s a way to finally arrive in Israel. He came here as a high school exchange student and later returned as a volunteer in a hospital.

Almost nine years ago, he took the plunge and moved to Israel, converted to Judaism, learned Hebrew and married a Jewish wife.

“I had some hard time in the beginning to find my way here and to get accepted,” Franz says. “I don’t know if I need to win the MasterChef competition to accomplish this. But it would be like finishing this long journey of arriving to Israel.”

Part of the journey was adapting to keeping kosher, a set of dietary laws observant Jews follow in the kitchen.

“The hardest is to give up the mixture of meat and dairy. It’s not so easy, there’s lot of things you have to take care of,” he says.